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Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:36:28 +0000
From: Michael Bauer <fios@akerbeltz.org>
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To: Ross Gardler <rgardler@opendirective.com>
CC: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: [NL] Re: About the Former Native Language projects
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Hi Ross,

Thanks for the warm welcome :)

13/12/2011 08:39, sgrìobh Ross Gardler:
> Please tell us what you need in order to continue your work and where 
> possible help us get it up and running. At this stage it is not clear 
> what the best structure and process is, but you can help us find it. 
> We ask for you patience, we need to ensure we create the best NL 
> environment for everyone. For now that means time on this list, you've 
> already seem that segregating activities on multiple lists can result 
> in people being left behind.
>
> It can help with email management if you use, and encourage others to 
> use, "[NL]" at the start of your subject lines.
>
> Note that, as a starting point our infrastructure team have setup a 
> pootle server. Let's get you up and running on that server.
>
> Welcome to Apache OpenOffice.
>
Well, I'm not sure I can speak for other locales, certainly not the big 
ones but I suspect many of the smaller locales (i.e. locales with very 
few team members will be in a similar position).

Now, in an ideal world, I'd like to see the following:
- AOO to be hosted on the same Pootle server as LibreOffice. With an 
arrangement for 3 separate "branches" - AOO/LO shared strings, AOO 
specific strings, LO specific strings. It would reduce the workload for 
small teams, which is a crucial factor. For teams with, say, a dozen or 
more active localizers it doesn't matters so much but if you're a 1-2 
member team, having to manage yet another localization site, potentially 
with large overlaps, would result in serious capacity problems. Failing 
that, a really *easy* way of cross-porting the po files to absolutely 
minimize the workload for small teams.

- A locale like Gaelic (I feel) doesn't need a full-blown locale site, 
we don't have critical mass on that scale. We currently redirect all 
stuff on the various localization projects to a general Gaelic forum 
with a special section on localization - and even that's quiet enough. 
I'd be perfectly happy with a small "corner" for downloads, some 
screenshots, basic info - the current solution over on LibreOffice 
(http://www.libreoffice.org/international-sites/) works very well for 
small teams, perhaps a days work to set it up and then very low 
maintenance. I'd be very happy with that. Whether that's a site like 
that, something more Wiki-esque or forum-like, I don't really mind.

- Ideally, shared hosting of the extensions. Apologies if I'm treading 
on toes or if this has been debated before but Ross asked what my 
locale's needs are in terms of l10n ;) It's like this - I only have one 
extension, a Gaelic spellchecker. At the moment I'm hosting it on both 
extension sites and I'm forever trying to explain to people that they 
can use either... time, I could spend better cracking on with localizing 
something else. There may be technical reasons why that doesn't work but 
from an end-user and small locale point of view, having those two sites 
with extensions that work on either platform nonetheless is annoying.

- As a matter of urgency, some simple download site where locales that 
got stuck when OO Pootle went down can get their po files.

That's about it ;) If I'm upsetting politics, my apologies, as I said 
before, I have no interest in those when it comes to localization, the 
above is a totally neutral statement of what my locale's l10n needs 
would look like in an ideal world.

Best

Michael